On Savage Shores by Caroline Dodds Pennock

Author:Caroline Dodds Pennock [Pennock, Caroline Dodds]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2023-01-24T00:00:00+00:00

The feathers were the only gift itemised in the Maya records and each lord clearly wished his contribution to be recognised. In this diplomatic exchange, interpreted by the friar Juan de Torres, it was not only the Q’eqchi’ negotiating with the Crown, but specific regional rulers, vying for recognition of their own parishes. No one wanted their contribution to be forgotten.

As well as the feathers, Aj Pop B’atz’ brought some gloriously plumed quetzal birds, along with a chorus of songbirds in delicate, stick cages, whose ‘sweet voices filled every corner of the palace with the soft harmonies of the jungles of Tuzulutlán’. This delightful sound penetrated the royal bedchamber and woke Philip, who hurried to the throne room, determined to see Aj Pop B’atz’ at once. According to Kistler, the next part of the story is seen as the most important by many Q’eqchi’ people today. As one Chamelqueño explained: ‘When the king of Spain told him to bow, [Aj Pop B’atz’] did not bow in front of the other king, it was that he couldn’t bow in front of the other king, because he was also a king. Then it was there that the king of Spain realized, yes, it was true, [Aj Pop B’atz’] was a king.’[31] This celebrated insistence that the Q’eqchi’ ‘chief of chiefs’ was of equal status to the king of Spain is vital to the way this story formed part of community identity and is understood today: as an act of resistance, which laid the foundations for their survival and persistence in the contemporary world.

Since 2006, Ashley Kistler has worked with Q’eqchi’ activist and scholar Sebastian Si Pop and other Chamelqueños to collect narratives and documents about Aj Pop B’atz’. This has been a project of cultural revitalisation as well as history, resulting in a children’s book to be used in Chamelco schools, as well as a municipal holiday in honour of the Q’eqchi’ ruler, held on 3 August, to mark the day in 1555 on which he was decreed ‘Lifelong Governor of the Verapaz region’. The research from this collaborative ethnology project has not only revealed a remarkable amount of evidence about this particular voyage – carefully guarded by the Q’eqchi’ community for almost five centuries – but also offers a model of practice which recognises Indigenous partners as researchers, values their multiple narratives as histories, and empowers communities to engage with the research in ways that are meaningful in their lives.[32]

According to the Chamelqueño histories, Philip found Aj Pop B’atz’’s refusal to bow so remarkable that he showered him with valuable gifts to take back to his homeland. The Testamento tells us a little more about the likely machinations of this exchange.

On the seventh day

we wrote the many settlements and towns

that had joined with the King.

How many houses of God

have you made then?, they were asked.

Eleven settlements they responded,

and eleven churches.

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